


To Build A Home

by hulklinging



Category: Runaways (Comics)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, F/M, Family, Fluff, Found Family, Happy Ending, Multi, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 18:08:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10972614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hulklinging/pseuds/hulklinging
Summary: One by one, they all come home.





	To Build A Home

**Author's Note:**

> Someone asked for domestic bonding for the Runaways... Here it is! It's also [on tumblr.](http://hulklinging.tumblr.com/post/160928844688/also-prompts-runaways-domestic-bonding)

It’s been six years, Gert realizes, as soon as she steps through the door. Six years since she’s lived somewhere normal. Dilapidated hotels, underground layers. The afterlife. And now, she’s standing in the doorway of a very normal apartment and she can’t bring herself to step inside.

She was worried, when she came home, that there would be a disconnect. That everything would have changed. And it did. In big ways, and also in little ways she’s still discovering. Her family is scattered, her boyfriend is traumatized, her dinosaur is missing. Sometimes she wakes up with a gasp, a phantom dagger sending waves of pain through her chest.

Everything is different. Except this.

Chase sees her hesitating, and without missing a beat he is bending over to pick her up, bridal-style because he’s a fucking dork, and they’re both laughing as he carries her over the doorjam. She should trade him for that, as sappy a move as it was, but she settles for a roll of her eyes and a kiss to his cheek when he finally puts her down.

“Welcome home,” Chase says, and if his voice catches, she won’t say anything about that either.

“Let’s unpack tomorrow,” she offers instead, and pulls him in for a proper kiss.

They settle in. Gert gets a job at a bookstore, because they’ve been able to track down some hidden stashes of her parents’ money, but it won’t last forever. And because she wants something to do with her days. It was also one of the only jobs she could think of where no one would notice her few-year gap in common knowledge, where she could start to fill that hole in, and where she figured they wouldn’t actually check to see if she had graduated from the high school on her resume.

Chase, to her shock, starts looking into what he would need to go back to school.

“What kind of school, babe?”

He’s silent for a moment, long enough that she’s worried he’s gone and slipped into another one of his flashbacks.

“I wanna be a social worker,” he says, finally, and she thinks her chest might burst with pride.

When did you go and grow up, she wants to ask, but she thinks she knows the answer to that, and she doesn’t want to bring that look into his eyes, the way he stares at her when he thinks she’s not looking, like if he blinks she’ll disappear again.

So they fall into a routine, her going to work, him prepping for the tests he’ll need to take to get into school, and it feels… Normal. It feels normal, and that feels like a victory in and of itself.

_See, Mom? Sometimes saving the world is as simple as just living, she wants to say. See Dad? Sometimes, things can turn out okay._

She wonders if thoughts like that make her an optimist now. She doesn’t really mind.

It’s four months into apartment living when there’s the sound of their buzzer going off. Gert, caught halfway through dying her hair (she wants to go purple again, for old time’s sake. Secretly, she’s hoping it makes the girl in the mirror more recognizable), calls out to Chase to get the door before she remembers that he’s out late today, talking with the advisor of the school he’s going to be attending in the fall. So he couldn’t have ordered food, and that’s really the only time someone comes a-calling.

Suddenly cautious, she walks over to the speaker, just as it buzzes again. She presses the button and tries to make her voice sound firm.

“Who is it?”

“Hello?” Says a voice that is older than it was when she last heard it, but still so familiar. “Sorry, is Chase there?”

They hadn’t really told anyone, when Gert had come back. They couldn’t find some of them, and the ones they found they couldn’t get a hold of. At the time, they had felt a little bad. It’s only now, with Molly standing at their building’s door, that Gert realizes how cruel that was.

“Molly,” she says, and there’s the sound of a gasp, just loud enough for Gert to catch. Gert can’t do this through their shitty speaker, she just can’t. She presses the button for the door to open, and then stands by their own front door, now hyper aware of all the things that have changed, all the things that have stayed the same.

She hears running footsteps outside her door, and throws it open before Molly even has a chance to knock. Gert’s smile feels shy and strange, but Molly doesn’t slow, doesn’t seem to notice, just wraps Gert up in an almost suffocating hug and starts to cry.

She doesn’t question it. Gert dreads her asking, doesn’t want to talk about waking up in darkness, lungs straining, lost and half-mad. She doesn’t want to talk about it, and Molly doesn’t ask. She’s older, almost an adult, and Gert doesn’t know if it’s her holding onto a childlike belief in miracles, or her experiences since that have taught her there are some subjects best left untouched. Instead, she just holds her, long enough for Gert to realize that Molly now towers over her. She accepts it as a fact by the time Molly reluctantly pulls away, feels her world readjust as she looks up at the girl instead of down. It’s a feeling she’s grown used to since coming back, after all.

“Oh!” Molly gestures at the door, where another girl lingers. She’s smaller than Molly, with big solemn eyes and a rose blooming in her hair. “This is Klara. We found her a hundred years ago.”

Chase had briefly mentioned that adventure, although no details. Gert hadn’t pried. She extends a hand to Klara, who shakes it with a cautious smile.

“Chase is at school,” she explains, like this is all commonplace, like they’re just two friends stopping by. “He should be back soon.”

Molly is wearing a backpack, Gert notices. So is Klara.

“We were kinda… Looking for somewhere to stay?” Molly admits. The uncertainty is what kills Gert, that they’ve drifted so far apart that Molly’s not sure she’s allowed to ask for sanctuary.

“We’ve got space,” Gert says, which is true, and even if it wasn’t, they would make it. Because that’s what family does.

The relief on Molly’s face makes Gert’s heart ache. She texts Chase and asks him to grab some food on the way home. Enough for four, if he doesn’t mind. They can go furniture shopping tomorrow.

What changes, now that Molly and Klara have moved in; plants on every windowsill, two people prepping for school instead of one, the grocery list on the fridge gaining vegetarian options, the ‘to watch’ list by the tv gaining all the cool animated movies she’s missed.

What doesn’t change; how good it feels to come home after a long day.

Klara finds a florist that’s hiring, and her smile gets wider and her shoulders slowly relax. Molly flies through her GED with almost childlike glee, already trying to decide between a thousand different career paths she would be equally excited to pursue. Gert watches her and thinks that she really was the strongest of them all, to go through all that they did and still come out so bright.

When the buzzer goes off one Sunday morning, Gert clicks the button without even checking to see who it is. Molly likes to go on runs in the mornings, and she’s notorious for forgetting her keys when she does.

When there’s a knock on the door though, Molly sticks her head out of her and Klara’s room to ask who that could be, and Gert and her share a look of concern. Chase is still in bed. Klara is already at work. After a nod of understanding, Molly moves towards the door, eyes already glowing.

“Sorry for the intrusion,” says the voice of another ghost. “We followed your signature here. We didn’t know where else to turn.”

The story comes out in pieces over the next few hours, a jail break and a daring escape that ended with a crash, all blurring together in a mix of panic and blood. Karolina Dean is bleeding out on their kitchen table, a battered Xavin and a blonde Gert doesn’t know hovering over her, doing their best to patch up her various cuts and burns while Molly helps and Chase goes for supplies and Gert pulls up various first aid sites on her laptop. It’s only after every wound has been dressed does anyone look at her. Karolina is unconscious still, but her pulse is strong and her lungs are clear, so Xavin has time to stare at her and shake their head, wonder chasing away some of the fear on their face.

“It seems to be a day for the impossible,” they murmur, and then Molly is fussing over their own injuries, and that is that. Gert has a feeling Karolina will be the one to demand the whole story, and she’ll have to prepare herself for that shortly, but for now she introduces herself to the stranger (Julie Power, and she apologizes for fighting that one time. Gert hardly remembers it at all), and starts thinking about where they can put three space fugitives.

Karolina wakes up, sees Xavin and Gert standing over her, and bursts into tears. It takes the two of them and Julie almost half an hour to convince her that no, she’s not dead, they all made it out and Gert is back too. She doesn’t want to let go of either of her partners’ hands, but she still pulls Gert close, kisses her cheek with something a little like a prayer.

It’s a month before Karolina can properly stand, so mostly she floats, trailing colours as she does. It’s the tail end of summer, and something about the season has everyone thinking about new beginnings. Gert comes home one day to the bathroom sink stained pink and Molly proudly sporting a hot pink pixie cut. Klara opted for a crisp bob, and Julie, whistling as she cleans up the mess she’s made, looks a little more sure of her place here.

Gert is thinking about growing her own hair out, only that makes her think of the first time they had to bury her. She asks Julie to help her cut it instead.

“The apartment next to ours is for sale,” Chase mentions casually, some time in September.

They throw caution to the wind and buy it, movie star money and time traveller money going towards doubling the space they have for their family, new-and-old-and-new again. Karolina comments on how her parents probably would have hated it, that this is what their money is being spent on, and it makes the four Pride children all smile in satisfaction.

Building a new world, in their own way.

The wall between the two apartments lasts until late September. Molly ‘accidentally’ punches a hole from one living room until the other, and at that point it’s just easier to tear it down, their living room doubling in size, the support beams reinforced and decorated with climbing vines. Molly and Klara still share a room, even though there’s enough bedrooms for each of them to have their own, but Klara does take over one of the balconies, her and Chase working to replace the railing with walls, adding glass over top, until they’ve got their very own little solar, overflowing with every kind of plant Klara can fit, plus a few more than Gert would bet don’t exist anywhere else. Karolina spends almost as much time in there as Klara does, starts using the veggies to cook elaborate dinners for them all. She can’t work yet, can barely walk, which is obviously getting to her, but being able to do something for the whole household helps.

They all become rather fond of vegan food, although meat and dairy still make appearances at breakfast and dinner for most of them.

Julie buys Xavin a camera after they mention an interest in photography, and Xavin pays her back with new headshots. She goes to every audition with the good luck charm of a kiss from each partner on her cheeks, and sometimes she even gets a part. Xavin starts taking photos of everything, shyly admits to Gert that Skrull aren’t encouraged to find the beauty in things, that it feels like their own little bit of rebellion to do so.

Gert can understand that, and says so.

Xavin also takes charge of Karolina’s recovery, firm and cautious, knowing that if Karolina had her way she’d have already gone and reinjured herself. But there’s a Saturday evening in early November that they all have off, and Xavin invites them all on a hike. They head up into the hills, and for a moment Gert is worried she’ll have to walk past her own grave, and that’s not a journey she’s ready to take yet. But Xavin leads them up another way, and when they reach the top and look over the city of Los Angeles, Karolina is still standing, pride and triumph in every line of her body.

Xavin drops to one knee.

Julie gasps, and Karolina turns, and then her hands are over her mouth, eyes wide. There are two rings in Xavin’s hand, not any metal Gert recognizes, but black like space and sparkling like stars.

“Xavin,” Karolina says, trying to tease with a voice that’s shaking. “We’re already married, darling.”

“This is a new life,” Xavin says, and Molly has Xavin’s camera, capturing it all. “This is a new life, and I want to share it with you. With both of you, my loves, my stars on dark nights.” They pause, and Julie and Karolina both reach out to hold one of Xavin’s hands, and entwine their fingers together between them as well. “We are all part of each other and I want to honour that in any way… In every way I can.”

“You’re supposed to say ‘will you marry me,’” Julie whispers, her tears in no way dimming her smile. “So we can say yes.”

“Right.” Xavin’s dark cheeks don’t quite hide her blush. “Julie Power, Karolina Dean, will you marry me?”

“Yes,” they breathe as one, and then there’s lots of kissing and more crying and shaking hands sliding rings onto waiting fingers.

Somewhere in all this, Chase’s hand finds Gert’s, and Gert thinks about how a ring would look on her own finger. She thinks she might like that a lot.

Gert hasn’t celebrated Hanukkah since her parents died, but Chase surprises her one night with a menorah.

“Just in case,” he says.

Klara had already presented them with a tree, grown perfectly to fit the height of their apartment and strong enough for the mountain of ornaments and lights Molly and Karolina have piled onto it. Gert’s not sure where she stands with religion, but when the first day of Hanukkah comes around she lights a candle anyway. Maybe not everything their parents taught them was bad, she thinks, or has to be treated with suspicion. Sometimes tradition can be grounding.

Klara joins her the next night.

“My husband didn’t let us have one,” she explains, her eyes on the candle. “I didn’t let myself miss it for a long time.”

Gert lets Klara light the candle, and as the flame catches in her eyes, making them glow, she makes a note to look up the closest synagogue.

On Christmas morning, Gert looks around at everyone, awash in the lights from the tree and Karolina’s own rainbow, and has to rub at her eyes for a moment. She must have something in them, that’s all.

Never, not once, did she ever think something like this would be possible. Not growing up, definitely not while on the run. It overwhelms her, and she hides her face in Chase’s shoulder until she gets a hold of herself.

Some time between Christmas and New Year’s her constant refrain of _we can make it we can make it we can’_ changes to _‘we made it we made it we did it we’re here.’_ Because they did. Every newspaper and tv anchor reported on how likely they were to follow their parents, to go bad. And they actively fought against that for a while, saved the world or some lives or some Starbucks along the way. But this is something even more impressive than that, in Gert’s opinion - living normal lives, being happy. Rate for heroes, even more rare for villains and their progeny.

It’s spring, and Nico Minoru finds her at work. She doesn’t look surprised to see her, which means she’s been told Gert is back. She offers her a razor of a smile, dangerous and tentative, and Gert gives her one in return.

“I hope it’s okay I’m here,” she says, voice low, like she’s worried someone will overhear. Like she’s gotten too used to hiding. “A friend of a friend told me you guys were around, and I… I thought I’d say hello.”

She’s got new scars, her style more refined but still enough to make her stand out most places. A bookstore in LA isn’t one of those places, though. Gert interprets her ‘friend of a friend’ comment as the superhero gossip pool, because even though Karolina and Julie rarely go out and save the day now, they stay in contact with those who do.

“None of us are doing any heroing anymore,” she warns Nico, because they’ve all lost too many homes and houses to risk what they have now.

“That’s okay,” Nico says. Then, after a beat, in a much quieter voice, “That’s better, honestly.”

They don’t hug yet, but Nico leans over and just rests her forehead on Gert’s shoulder, and Gert rubs at her back. Neither of them say anything, but Nico’s still there when Gert’s shift is over, and they ride the bus home together.

Karolina almost knocks Nico over with the force of her hug.

“We were hoping you’d come,” she says. “We saved a room for you. I’ll even help you paint the walls black, if you want.”

Nico laughs, a noise that sounds almost rusty with disuse, and Karolina joins in a moment later. No one comments on how the joke wasn’t that funny, just lets them have a moment to themselves before all piling on on the hug.

They’re not complete, not totally. Victor died, although there’s rumours circulating that make that sound like a temporary situation. And Alex had his second chance, and threw it away again. Gert’s not sure about the others, but knows that she would not open the door if he came knocking.

The flowers outside start to bloom, and Gert thinks they’ve been here a year now, or just about. Almost everyone is out, but Molly is doing homework at the kitchen table and Chase is attempting to make her an anniversary cake, or a birthday cake, or something. Gert keeps getting distracted from her book by his more creative curses.

Something outside roars.

Chase and her freeze at exactly the same time.

“Attagirl,” he says, face splitting into a grin.

Gert is already headed for the door.

“At this rate, we’re gonna need to buy the building,” Molly says, but she’s laughing, skipping behind Chase as they go to collect another one of their missing pieces.


End file.
